The woolly bugger seems so "plain Jane" and has been around so long that many experienced fly rodders sneer whenever the pattern is mentioned. But if there was ever a truly honest assessment of fly patterns, I think the venerable bugger would emerge as the most versatile fly in freshwater. Consider what it will catch. Not only is it absolutely deadly on most trout species, but the entire sunfish family also loves it. That includes the mighty smallie, of course, but also largemouth, spotted and shoal bass, plus bluegills, rock bass, and crappies. And the bugger is great for lots of other warmwater species, too. It's good for white bass, it's one of my favorite walleye patterns and in larger sizes it's deadly on pike.

   While it can be easily and effectively tied in an almost infinite variety of weights, colors and sizes, too many guys fail to make full use of the bugger's diversity. They only use of a few different buggers, rather than having a dozen or more available. Here are some of the different ways I like to tie and use the woolly bugger.

What's Your Weight?
   First of all, I tie wooly buggers in a lot of different weights. This may sound familiar to those who have read my new book, but it bears repeating. A fly's weight is one of its most critical features, yet retailers seldom list a fly's weight and even many tiers don't pay close attention to how much weight they add to their patterns. This is a mistake. The amount and placement of the weight will influence how deep you can fish the fly, how much it snags, its action and how easy or hard it is to cast.

   Weight-in-the-body is the most common way to tie buggers, and this way the fly will fall horizontally and at a slower rate than flies with the weight in their heads. I like to have the same size and color buggers in 3 different weights: about 6, 10 and 14 wraps of .030 lead for slow, medium and fast sink rates.

   I also like to tie plenty of my woolly buggers in the "weight-forward" style. With the weight in the head, the fly sinks faster and works better for the "crayfish hop," a deadly bottom-hopping technique. Metal beads and cone heads will do, but barbell eyes keep the hook upright and reduce snagging. To meet a variety a depths and current speeds, I use head weights ranging from 1/60th to 1/30th ounce.

   The most unusual buggers I use are floating ones. Starting out by sliding a cylinder of closed-cell foam over the bare hook shank (with a small hole drilled thru the center of the foam) I have a highly buoyant bugger. On a sinking line and short leader, using a pull-and-pause retrieve, you can create highly appealing "yo yo" action as the fly gets pulled downward then rises. Strike detection is a little tricky with this method, so it works best in lakes or slack water areas of a river.

Colors, Sizes and Shapes
   Besides having the fly in many different weights, an equally large variety of colors is also valuable. Certainly woolly buggers in various mixtures of grey, olive, rust and tan can be excellent when water clarity is good, but the more basic solid colors of white, black, brown and yellow are also deadly. Black is probably the most popular color with anglers, and it's often a killer. But yellow can be terrific too, even though it's not a very fashionable color with fly tiers nowadays.

   I tie wooly buggers in different sizes (ranging from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 inches in length) to meet different fishing conditions, and I also use different size hackles to alter the buggers appearance. Using palmered hackle with extra-short fiber gives the fly's body more of a bare, prickly look. When hackles with unusually long fibers are used, they tend to bend and tail alongside the body when the fly is retrieved. Sometimes one type of bugger body is significantly better than the other one. But the only way you'll know which one the fish wants that day is to try both kinds.

Rear Action
   The last component of a woolly bugger that many people don't pay enough attention to is its tail. A standard bugger tail is mostly marabou and about the length of the fly's body. These are often productive, but at times significantly longer tails are better. A woolly bugger with a one-inch body and two-inch tail projects a good-sized profile and has extra tail action when the fly is hopped. One way to keep a long tail from tangling around the hook bend is to use peacock herl instead of marabou. The stems on herl are stiffer than marabou, so it doesn't tangle as much. However, I think marabou produces better action, so I often use it and reduce tangling by adding a "tail guard" (a mono loop at the end of the body).

   Many woolly buggers are tied with a few strands of Krystal Flash added to the tail. An alternative is to use lots of Flashabou. Tails with lots of gold or copper Flashabou and just a small amount of marabou mixed into it can be good. This creates a more of a 'Synthetic Bugger," and it's sometimes just what "Dr. Smallmouth" ordered.

   These are just a few of the tremendous number of bugger variations and modifications that are possible and productive. Got any others you'd like to share with me?